Bob Kaufman, known in France as the "American Rimbaud," is one of the original Beat poets of the late 1950s. Rightfully regarded as one of the most influential black poets of his era, he was one of the original founders of Beatitude magazine. He was also nominated for England's Guinness Poetry Award. He has read his work with such poets as Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Micheline, and Diane DiPrima, among others, and his poetry has appeared in print with theirs.

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 18 April 1925, Kaufman is the son of a German Orthodox Jew and a Negress from Martinique. He was the third youngest of thirteen children. Kaufman's great-grandmother came to the United States on a slave ship from the Gold Coast of Africa. Between attending Catholic mass on Sunday under his mother's influence, joining his father in the Synagogue on Sabbath, and...